There’s an old economic indicator known as the “lipstick effect.” Estee Lauder founder, Leonard Lauder, gets credit with the naming the phenomenon that’s been observed since the Great Depression. It works like this: as the economy drops, lipstick sales rise. In fact, demand increases for beauty items in general when the economy starts to turn. The effect benefits quick fixes like make-up and some clothing, but it comes at the expense of more expensive and luxury goods, according to psychologist Nancy Upton.

If you think Lauder was simply pumping his stock during a recession, consider this: new science indicates Lauder was right. What’s more, the phenomenon results from our species’ deepest mating instincts.

A new paper by Sarah E. Hill and others reports the results for four separate studies that confirm Lauder’s observation.

Our findings consistently supported the lipstick effect, as college-age women, when primed with news of economic instability, reported an increased desire to buy attractiveness-enhancing goods, along with a decreased desire to purchase goods that do not enhance one’s physical appearance. Our experiments also found that this increased desire for beauty products, clothing and accessories was fully mediated by a heightened preference for mates with resources.

We shouldn’t be surprised, really. We are biological creatures with strong self-preservation instincts. The impulse to beautify makes women more resilient to economic distress. Knowing that the lipstick effect is real should help retailers and manufacturers gauge demand for both beauty-enhancing products like lipstick and goods that do not enhance beauty.